Song As Old As Time
by SydCryn
Summary: A new twist on an old story. Bartlet doesn't make it to the White House, so what are the Staffers doing several years later?


Song As Old As Time 

Disclaimers: Yes, this belongs to GE, Aaron Sorkin, etc. I'm just borrowing them for a second and warping the WW plot a tad.

From the Author: I'm not totally sure where this story is going or whether I'll finish it or not (I'm trying to be brutally honest). My muse just said, 'Write it' and so I wrote it. I'm not an amazing writer by any stretch, I just like to play with ideas. If my muse says 'Continue my child' then I shall continue. :)

Relationships: None this time. I might play with something later, for now I'm sticking to general stories.

Josh slowly walks into his office as he reads a memo in hand. It's a slow day and he has time to sit back and leisurely read some of his latest correspondence. A familiar voice interrupts his musing however.

"Josh"

Josh looks up from the memo into the face of Leo McGarry and breaks into a smile, "Sir, it's a pleasure to see you."

Leo walks in and takes a seat in the old chair across from Josh's desk, "I hope you don't mind I didn't make an apointment. I'm trying to fly under the radar a little."

"Of course, I don't mind, but the President is in conference right now with some Senators"

"It's probably about the annual vote to override the veto on the resolution to ship nuclear wastes to Nevada. Apparently it might actually pass this year."

Josh raises an eyebrow, "Wow, I hadn't heard that one yet, I've been so buried in the Social Security bill for the past few weeks I haven't really paid attention to much else. I can't believe Margaret didn't tell me at least."

Leo shifts a little in his chair and then leans forward, "Margaret has a selective memory, she'll probably bring it up when she wants to mock you. I did warn you about her didn't I?"

"I recall you saying that she could be a bit of a handful sometimes, not that she needed bright green and orange warning labels. Do you know I caught her practicing the First Lady's signature the other day?"

"I'm not surprised, anyway, I came to talk to you."

"Really? What can I do for you?"

"Let's take a walk," and with that Leo pushes back his chair in preparation to leave the room.

Josh pauses a moment before turning to look critically at Leo, "The last time you asked me to take a walk with you I ended up New Hampshire promoting a candidate that you forgot to mention had a debilitating illness."

"Yeah, I know."

"I can't do that again Leo, I've just barely got my standing back with the President as it is, I'm lucky to even have an office in the White House."

"Just take a walk with me Josh and I'll explain."

"No Leo, if I take a walk with you you'll pull out the line about how sons should do things for old friends of their fathers and then I'll be hooked. I just...I just really can't do it this time."

A slight sigh escapes Leo's lips as he turns around, "Fine, then we'll just have to do this here then." He settles back down in the chair before beginning to talk again, "Josh, I realize that the situation with Bartlet hurt your career badly and more importantly hurt you. We all believed in him, we all wanted to do something good. And he was a good man, we have to keep that in mind. He was just taken down by something bigger than him. I still have a belief that we can get a good man elected President."

"So what liberal academic former governor from New England do you have targeted this time. Could you at least vet him a little better?" The last sentance was said a little more sharply than intended. It really wasn't Leo's fault what had happened...It just happened. But everyone had had such high hopes and then..Nothing.

"No one Josh, that's why I'm here. About a month ago I was diagnosed with liver cancer, I don't have that much longer to hold on."

This brings him up short and all of the fight drains out of Josh in one push, "Cancer? Leo, I don't know what to say..." He looks around as if the proper words are just stored on his shelf, ready to grab at a moments notice.

"You don't have to say anything Josh, I'm the victim of my own bad mistakes, ones that I regret dearly now." His face is stoic all the while he's talking, betraying nothing in his movements or on his face, he's come to accept that something like this might happen. Too many years of alcohol, drugs, stress, and disappointments for him to expect to get off scot free. "What I wanted to talk to you about was your future. I want to live long enough to see a strong President in the White House."

"You know, that could probably be considered mutinous if the Secret Service hear you saying that."

"Whatever, Josh, I can't be the one on the quest to find that good man anymore. It's your job now."

"Me? Why me?"

"Because that's what sons do for old friends of their fathers." And with that Leo gets up and starts to walk out the door, but not before turning around to look at Josh, "It's time to start anew Josh."

"But what if I can't do it, why me?"

"It's always been you Josh, you just needed a little push in the right direction." Leo heads on his way, leaving Josh puzzled. After a moment he picks up his office phone and dials a number as he sits back down in his desk chair.

"Yeah, uh, Janet. I need you to set up an appointment with the Congressman for me. Yeah, 10 is fine, I'll be there..."

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Sam is in a meeting with several other Representatives, including the House Majority and Minority Leaders. It's a discussion about how to proceed now that the new Social Secuirty bill is a sure fire miss.

"All in, from beginning to end, 18 million dollars."

"18 million dollars, that's a cheap price, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is. What you're happy about isn't the price though, it's the structure."

"Well how do you figure that?"

"Sam's going to tell you about it. Sam."

Sam looks up quickly for the first time and into the faces of his colleagues all looking in his direction, "Hmm?"

"The new tests and data?"

"Uh, yeah. What the Congressman means is, if you were going to run small scale tests of this new social security system it wouldn't mean anything if we didn't have the right people coming in participate as well as the ability to analyze all of the information we're getting into something meaningful. We also don't want this to be a fifty year test, so we have to set up parameters that will allow for accurate data in a shorter time span. Let me run back to my office and grab the specifics on the tests and excepted data that we put together while Senator Sherwood talks to you about tax figures."

Sam pushes back his chair and walks down the corridor where his secretary, Janet, meets him.

"Sam. There's a guy from the White House waiting in your office. Says he's an old friend."

"What's his name?"

"Josh Lyman?"

A startled look is thrown over his shoulder as he comes to a stop. For a moment he is overcome with memories of his last encounter with Josh Lyman before he shakes his head to clear his thoughts, "Seriously?"

"Yeah."

Sure enough, when he enters his office, a smiling Josh greets him, "Hey! How are you doing?"

"Hey, I'm doing fine. You look fit to be locked away though, what are they feeding you over there at the big House?"

"Ha. It's more like when are they going to let me see the sun again. You're about to make Chair of the House Administration Committee, right?

"Yeah, next month. Listen, I'm hungry, want to go down to the mess for a burger or something?"

"It's 10 o'clock in the morning."

"Yeah, they might actually be warm then. Come on."

"Okay."

They both walk down the hallway in contemplative silence before Josh finally breaks out of his reviere, "Listen, I'm not really sure why I'm here."

"Leo finally came to talk to you, didn't he?"

"Yeah, he seems to think that I can find a good man to be President. I don't know what he expects from me, the Vice President is a shoo in for the next election and I have a good position lined up with him."

"So what do you ned me for?"

"I'm not sure right now, I just...I don't know what to do. He came in and said, 'Josh, go find a good man to run' and then turned around and left without any other information."

"That's because he knew you didn't need it."

"Yeah. Well."

"Listen, I got to get back to this thing."

"It's good seeing you. We should go out for a beer sometime, we haven't done that since..."

"I know. It's good seeing you too. I miss you. We're in the same town and haven't made time for each other in over five years..." They're done and headin separate directions now.

"Hey, Sam, Congratulations on the Chair thing, that's great."

"Thanks, Josh?"

They pause in the middle of the hallway of the United States Capitol and turn to each other.

"The Vice President, he's not the real thing, is he?"

"See, that-the thing you gotta know about him is--" Josh has been here before, in this tirade, but that was long ago, a different generation.

"It's okay, I'm not a fan of him either."

"I'm just saying..."

"Josh, what are you doing? You're gearing up to run a campaign for a man that has as much energy as a turnip."

"I don't know. What are you doing?"

"Setting up another social security system doomed to failure."

Josh just nods slowly.

"It's our duty to at least try and find a better solution though, we've bought the system another twenty years, but that's not enough. I just...I'm just a junior Representative from California, they won't listen to new ideas."

"The House? Not open to new ideas? Who would have thought that day would come."

Sam just smiles a little bit.

"If I do find the real thing Sam, should I tell you about it?"

"You won't have to."

Josh smiles slightly at the memory of a previous encounter, "Yeah, I know, I have a bad poker face. Okay, take it easy."

"Okay."

They turn and walk down the corridor in opposite directions.


End file.
